The Great American
Fascist

The other day a writer I greatly esteem,
lauding a new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote a
sentence that left me near apoplexy: that of Roosevelts
greatness there can be no question.

In
the first place, I think its always risky to say there is no room for a second opinion
on matters where second opinions are common among intelligent and
sensitive people. Think of all the Bush administration spokesmen who said not
only that Saddam Husseins Iraq posed a danger to this country, but,
more fatally, that there was no doubt of this.

Well,
millions saw room for doubt. I was only one of them. It was presumptuous to
assert a consensus where none existed; and anyway, todays
consensus  what Everybody Knows  can evaporate mighty
fast tomorrow.

So I think it
is overreaching a bit to say that there is no question of the greatness of the
man who gave the world the atomic bomb, made war on civilian populations,
befriended Stalins Soviet Union, lied flagrantly to the public,
vandalized the Constitution, centralized power, illegally put innocent
American citizens into concentration camps, debased the currency ... you
get the drift. There is in fact some question as to his greatness and always
has been. Was he elected unanimously? To read the encomia, youd
think he faced no rational opposition from those who remembered this
countrys historical principles.

Nor does
the new biography (if the review is any guide) give any evidence to warrant
the verdict of greatness outweighing Roosevelts
notorious crimes. It seems to offer one more mere list of crises that he, as
they say, led the nation through.

What a
vacuous expression! But how else can he be praised? Think of the ludicrous
debates over his memorial a few years ago. Should it show his wheelchair?
His cigarette holder? In the end, about all that was left of him was his
famous jaunty grin. His more fatuous admirers never omit
mention of that jaunty grin, which seems to have ended the
Great Depression.

Put it this
way: In what respect did Roosevelt leave this country, or Europe, freer than
it had been before him? Of course emotional eulogies followed his death. But
after 62 years, it is high time they stopped.

Monarchy
is long gone, but many Americans still want to worship their allegedly great leaders.
Popular polls rank John Kennedy near the top of the list, a judgment few
sober historians share. The spirit of American Idol isnt
confined to talentless singers. It animates American democracy.

As a mental
exercise, read the most serious thinkers among the American Founders
 Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton  and try to imagine how
they would have evaluated Roosevelt and his legacy. They fell far this side of
perfection, but they listened to themselves and measured their words
carefully. I dont think anyone would call them childish. None of them
ranked jauntiness high among the republican virtues.

I know of no
indication that Roosevelt ever studied or even read The Federalist
Papers. If he did, they certainly left no impression on him. He
governed as if they had never been written. It is impossible to imagine him
conversing intelligently with their authors. Their whole spirit was alien to him.

Consider
one passage from Federalist No. 62, written by Madison: It will be of
little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice,
if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that
they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are
promulg[at]ed, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows
what the law is to-day can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to
be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less
fixed?

Right or
wrong, some real thought went into these words; and they are worth
reflecting on before you set about building a utopia.

Now try to
square that with the barrage of New Deal legislation, modeled on Italian
fascism, which is always cited among Roosevelts great achievements.
Yet his celebrants speak as if he had known, built on, and superseded the
work of this republics Founders, none of which is remotely the case.

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